On reading serialized novels
When I was a kid, I used to gulp down entire novels in one go. I'd make a game of it: can I read this entire thing before Mom gets back from grocery shopping? and the answer was usually yes. And this mode of reading continued up until I hit college, so I basically spent my entire childhood practicing speed-reading
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If I understand correctly, it's been in the works for at least 2 years. The main reason for posting only weekly is that it's giving the author a chance to double-check each chapter for continuity, given that it's gone through 10+ drafts.
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Let's say I took the lesson from How I Met Your Mother this year on blind spots; that actually was the reason I started seriously thinking of what I was doing and why I was doing it and if it actually still worked and started worrying.
This is a problem with most book series; knowing your ending and writing toward it is fine, but sometimes the writing doesn't go there even if you want it to and you have to be willing to change or the story stops (or ends up How I Met Your Mother, worse fate imo). And for that matter, see it isn't going there and keep trucking, which for me is nightmare fuel. The trees distract from the forest ( ... )
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And, as you say, it could/should help the writer avoid something not a lot of people talk about: weak endings. There's lots said about beginnings, but I can think of a whole lot of stories that started strong, began to taper off, and finished rather poorly. (Or, in the case of something like The Chronicles of Prydain, a little too strongly. It's too much of an ending.) But if the writer can track what matters to the audience, and the expectations building off the publishes chapters, they can, as you ( ... )
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One--I can't imagine having to do that without writing my own character directory back then. Two--I was very young (read: fourth grade) and got a Reader's Digest condensed version, which shorter and definitely some unneeded trimming, made reading the full version far less frustrating and much more rewarding than I think I would have bothered with if I tried it cold.
It's not the story or complexity, it's the style itself that grates on me badly and it takes time to get used to it. It's like--in a completely different way--Charles Dickens. I'd read him in kid-version and even adult-condensed form before the full work and then tried to read Hard Times cold; one, that book was the worst possible choice of his to even try, and two, he really loved all the words (which ( ... )
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Er.
No, this is really helpful, what you've written--you've pretty much nailed what I was flailingly trying to get at. Which makes sense, since you've actually done it, while I'm only contemplating doing so. So, thanks? :P
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Yes, that book is--yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned that one specifically as an example because that was one of those "great idea but holy hell what" when you hit it That's why I'm glad I did the condensed first; it was much much easier to--adjust, I guess. I also think it's such a very specific, almost idiosyncratic style; it's not badly written by any means, the author meant to do it just like that. It's like reading John Updike or some of the modern classic; it's very much a mental adjustment.
(I still am determined to one day get Finnegan's Wake. I try and then stop and can't deal, but every so often, I feel like I'm almost there. House of Leaves is another one. That one I genuinely love, but every time, I get to glazed-eyes in the marathon level reading. Rewarding yes, but I need more stamina.)
No ( ... )
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...I was about to make the disclaimer about how you've got your own project going, and I don't want to get in the way of that, but then I realized how ridiculously optimistic that is. Like I'll need to worry about continuity any time soon. :P
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Ran out of rooom in the last comment (wow, I had no idea that could happen) so this part -- YES.
2) I really need to get back into the swing of devouring books--to go back and read and reread some of the classics I know I love, instead of trawling around the internet and winding up with disappointment 99% of the time
For fandom, just throwing these out:
Have you read Iolokus or Bowiehbarata? They're both by RivkaT and Mustang Sally, first X-Files (Mulder/Scully) and second Buffy (Buffy/Spike). Both are novel series and in the case of Iolokus, is serial novels that build off each other in both emotional fallout and plot, both novel-internal and over-arching. And when I say they have everything but the kitchen sink, I'm lying; there is in fact a kitchen sink in there somewhere. And it's very X-Files indeed. If you are ( ... )
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Ha! It's contagious.
so this part -- YES.
I've actually found someone willing to marathon at least season 1 of SGA with me, so that we can hash out what exactly can be 'fixed' by John and the potential fall-out of that, so I'm feeling pretty enthusiastic. Mostly because I can already sort of see the shape of it in my head--not the actual plot, not yet, but some of the issues that'll have to be dealt with (and there's a lotHave you read Iolokus or Bowiehbarata?
Nope. Never really got into X-Files, but I might take a look at the Buffy one. Well. Someday, when my head isn't being eaten by Agincourt as a reader and Things as a writer. (I was commiserating the other day with one of my coworkers on how taxing it is to run a side business, which this is slowly becoming for me, even though there's no money in it. Not yet, at least.)
Just soulchangingly huge, is what I'm saying.I'm actually contemplating getting a Kindle just so I can read my slowly-accumulating folder of ginormous fanfic novels on ( ... )
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